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The Different Personalities of Social Media

Every generation has its unique qualities. We saw hippies in the 60s, awful disco outfits in the 70s, the 80s hair explosion, so on and so forth. As would be expected, millennials are not without their share of distinctive looks and trends as well. Skinny jeans, tattoos and yoga pants can certainly be found in abundance. But something even more unique about millennials is the onslaught of completely new personas thanks to the explosion of social media and the digital age. Millennials don’t merely have their own style. Millennials are made up of “types” of people who did not exist prior to 5 years ago. I am a girl, so the categories will be put into female terms. But you can be sure that there is the male equivalent for every single one. So yes, males can be selfie queens too.

Let’s take a look:

1.The Selfie Queen: Prior to the early 2000s, the only way a “selfie” was attainable was by awkwardly turning your camera around and hoping the focus was on your face as you pressed the button. While my knowledge is limited (I was 7 in 2000), I’m pretty sure the word “selfie” was not even in existence until the post-millennium era. This shows you how new the emergence of our modern day selfie queen is. A selfie queen is that girl who constantly updates your every feed with her latest look. You wonder if she has any friends because 9/10 of her photos are the ones she took of herself. Some are of the classic duck face, others are a smile, but mainly they are the sulky sexy pout face. Because with Instagram’s onslaught of filters, everyone can be stunning.

2. Raver Chick: I have to admit that I self identify with this category. The music loving chick is not a new concept, but the raver chick is. Electronic Dance Music has made its break through in the US, and now there are huge music festivals popping up all over the country. Gone are the days of Woodstock and hippies smoking weed listening to some folky tunes. Enter the era of loud synthesized beats and people jumping around to a DJ with a laptop performing underneath an insane light show. The 21st century is keeping things upbeat. Raver chicks float from festival to festival, and their outfits get smaller and brighter year after year. Check out examples here. The raver chick represents all things digital, as she is statistically more likely to utilize social media extensively. Her music is digital, her hobbies are digital. So essentially, she is “so 21st century.”

3. The quietly loud: My title for those who are deathly shy in person but have endless things to say online. The internet is a beautiful thing in that it connects all types of people who may never have been able to find each other. But it also is making real-life interaction less and less necessary (which I don’t think is a good thing until we all morph into digital characters and no longer have flesh/3-D selves). Being shy is no longer a hindrance with online gaming and social platforms. Freezing up when you have something to say? Not a problem when sitting behind a computer screen. I have found that actually, some of the most aggressive/constantly posting people on social media can be those you hardly hear speak in person! The naturally shy did not have this option of expression before the digital age, which is why we now have the quietly loud.

On top of this array of new personalities, the digital age has also led to an abundance of “social media models.” Social media models are girls and guys who spend immense amounts of time grooming themselves so that they can go out into the general public to take an array of “candid” photos doing every-day things. They then post these photos to show how effortlessly fabulous their lives are, even though hours of prep and picture taking have gone into the “candid” shot. Social media models can indeed become social media famous if their staging abilities/beauty is good enough. But generally, there is now an intense need to look amazing on social media and millennials are more than willing to spend the time fulfilling this need.

All in all, the digital age has led to an interesting mixture of personalities and expressions. As more platforms arrive more personalities will arrive. Until then, do you recognize yourself in any of these new age personas? If you utilize digital, its hard not to see yourself in at least one category!